The stock market of the Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) on Monday closed flat as the capitalisation declined by N2 billion amid sell-offs in Dangote Sugar and 19 other stocks.
Notably, the market capitalization, which opened at N55.554 trillion, shed N2 billion to close at N55.552 trillion.
Consequently, the All-Share Index also lost five points to settle at 98,223.97, in contrast to 98,228.50 posted on Tuesday.
As a result,the Year-To-Date (YTD) return slipped to 31.36 per cent.
Sell-offs in banking stocks such as: Zenith Bank, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO), Access Corporation,as well as, PZ Cussons Nigeria, International Breweries, Dangote Sugar, among other declined equities, left the market in the red.
Also, the market breadth closed negative with 20 losers and 14 gainers.
On the losers’ table, PZ led by 10 per cent to close at N34.20, International Breweries trailed closely by 9.89 per cent to close at N3.92 per share.
McNichols Plc lost 9.73 per cent to close at N1.02, Sterling Nigeria dropped 9.59 per cent to close at N4.43 and Linkage Assurance went down by 9.41 per cent to close at 77k per share.
Conversely, Okomu Oil led the gainers’ table by 9.98 per cent to close at N255.70, Tantalizers followed by 8.33 per cent to close at 39k and Cutix gained 5.26 per cent to close at three Naira per share.
The Initiative Plc rose by 4.76 per cent to close at N2.20 and WAPIC advanced by 4.4 per cent to close at 71 kobo per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled higher relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions up by 9.94 per cent.
A total of 319.08 million shares valued at N9.18 billion were exchanged in 8,121 deals, compared to 425.66 million shares valued at N8.35 billion exchanged in 9,620 deals traded at the previous session.
Meanwhile, the United Bank of Africa (UBA) led the volume chart with 79.98 million shares valued at N2.07 billion, Transnational Corporation followed by 38.59 million shares worth N472.37 million.
Access Corporation sold 34.07 million shares valued at N594.52, GTCO 25.21 million shares worth N968.61 million, while Fidelity Bank transacted 12.62 million shares valued at N112.98 million.